From July 1, 2017 to January 7, 2018, the Fort of Bard hosts the exhibition The Art of the National Academy of San Luca. From Raffaello to Balla. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Forte di Bard Association and the National Academy of San Luca, one of the oldest and most important Italian cultural institutions active at the national and international level in the field of art. On the occasion of the exhibition, a large and representative selection of the precious collection of the Academy, which dates back to the 17th century, is mainly lent thanks to the gifts and legacies of academics or private collectors or through competitions banned by the Academy itself.

115 works on display - oils on canvas, boards, bronzes, terracotta and plaster - of great historical and artistic interest, dating back over a period from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, with a particularly large group consists of paintings and sculptures dating from the seventeenth centuries And XVIII. For the first time a corpus so rich in works owned by the Academy leaves the prestigious Roman seat of Palazzo Carpegna to travel to the north, allowing the visitors of the Bard Fort to know a substantial part of a cultural heritage of absolute exceptionality.

The exhibition is housed in the 'Cannoniere' - the most prestigious exhibition site of the Fort of Bard, equipped with climatological and lighting technology suitable for the reception of works of art - and follows a chronological trend, imprinted in the seven large halls forming them. The path starts from what is undoubtedly the most precious work of the exhibition, a fresco depicting a putto, painted by Raffaello Sanzio. Next to Raphael masterpieces documenting the two most influential Renaissance centers in the peninsula, Tuscany and Veneto, with works by Agnolo Bronzino, Giambologna, Jacopo Bassano and Palma il Giovane.

The seventeenth century is represented in all its splendor by works by Guido Reni, Guercino and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, of which is presented the terracotta model for the 'Lion' of the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Masterpieces by Rubens and Van Dyck, who spent a long time in Italy, and representatives of Flemish and Dutch painting - like Jan De Momper and Michiel Sweerts, - testify to the international scope of the collection.

Giovan Battista Piazzetta and the splendid archaeological views of Giovanni Paolo Pannini document the section devoted to the eighteenth century, which closes with the beautiful oil of Angelika Kauffmann, The Allegory of Hope.

The nineteenth century opens in the portrait's mark: Andrea Appiani, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, the Canova and Thorvaldsen plaster, and the impressive Athenian Triumphant by Francesco Hayez.

The final part of the exhibition is dedicated to the Milanese Scapigliati movement, with paintings by Tranquillo Cremona and Federico Faruffini; Two oils by Giacomo Balla, a self-portrait and the great peasant of 1902 conclude the vast excursus among the masterpieces of art history from the 15th to the 20th century.

As part of the exhibition, the Association, in conjunction with the San Luca Academy, promoted and supported a large restoration campaign for works that needed interventions.

Short story of the National Academy of San LucaThe current National Academy of San Luca, named after the Saint Evangelist patron saint of painters, was born through a series of steps that occurred between the second half of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, the ancient University of the Arts of Painting of Rome, whose first Statutes date back to 1478.The passage from 'Universitas' to the Academy of Art of Painting, Sculpture and Drawing, by the initiative of the painter Girolamo Muziano, was officially sanctioned by a Brief issued by Gregory XIII in 1577. A few years later, in 1593, there was the symbolic "Foundation" of the Academy, by Federico Zuccari, the first Prince of the Academy, and only in 1607 the approval of the first known Statutes of the Academy of Painters and Sculptors of Rome. During the Principality of Pietro da Cortona, after 1634, the Architects entered the Academy with equal authority of Painters and Sculptors. The Statutes were subjected to repeated updates over the centuries until the recent reform, which took place in 2005.During the eighteenth century the prestige of the Academy reached its apex, gaining international recognition, also witnessed by the request of aggregation of other Italian and foreign Academies.Thanks to the fundamental role played by the didactic activity in the teaching of Drawing and in the setting up of Contests, the Academy remained for a long time an international reference for the Fine Arts. Only after the abolition of the Schools in 1873, The Academy would gradually begin to lose the centrality it had maintained for three centuries.

A particularly important aspect of the Academy's activity was the establishment of competitions, bandits periodically using foundations and legacies of academics, thanks to which the collections of the Academy were formed and enriched. Starting from its origins, the Academy of San Luca set itself the goal of imparting artistic teaching to young Italians and foreigners who wanted to perfect themselves in Rome in the study of the arts.In 1754 Benedetto XIV founded the Capitol of the Nude Academy and entrusted it to the Academy of San Luca.At the time of the French government, in 1810, in the context of a general reorganization of the institution, the task of training artists was officially assigned to the Academy.